Arunasalam Thangathurai

Arunasalam Thangathurai (; 17 January 1936 – 5 July 1997) was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament.

Early life and family Thangathurai was born 17 January 1936. He was from the village of Killiveddy near Mutur in Trincomalee District, along the bank of Allai tank. His father was a rural registrar and a land-owning farmer. They had two daughters (Dharmini) and one son (Ahilan). He and his younger brother Kumarathurai started establishing Tamil settlements in secure border areas. In the 70s Thangathurai gained a reputation for being one of the young militants in ITAK and faced arrest. A delimitation committee reduced Mutur from a two-member constituency to a single-member constituency by carving out the Sinhalese dominated Seruvila Electoral District. The massacre received international coverage after Thangathurai spoke to The Times about it. Following the massacre of 24 civilian in Kumarapuram on 11 February 1996, Thangathurai blamed the army for the killings and called for an independent public inquiry. Important information about the perpetrators of the massacre, including Colonel Nihal Silva, was provided to Thangathurai by the Sinhalese villagers of Dehiwatte. As he was leaving the function at around 7.30pm, a grenade was thrown at the group and shots fired. Hundreds of people, including school children, attending the function witnessed the incident. However, TULF leaders such as V. Anandasangaree and M. Sivasithamparam have cast doubts over this, stating that there were many armed groups and that the TULF had opponents amongst the Sinhalese, as well as Tamil, population. According to the lawyers for some of the suspects, they had been tortured by the police.

Electoral history + Electoral history of A. ThangathuraiElectionConstituencyPartyVotesResult 1970 parliamentary Mutur ITAK Elected 1994 parliamentary Trincomalee District TULF Elected